Russian Super Final 06: Fantastic Round Six

10/11/2013 – What a round! The men's section saw an unbelievable five decisive games. Svidler keeps his lead by beating Motylev while Kramnik crushed Inarkiev and keeps trailing by half a point. Nepomniachtchi hopped over Vitiugov in the standings with a powerful attack and is now third with Andreikin. Gunina smashed Kovanova to become the solo lead a full point ahead. We bring you multiple GM annotations.

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Russian Championship Super Finals

The tournament is hosted by the Russian Chess Federation in cooperation with the Charity Foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko , with the support of the Government of the Nizhny Novgorod region. The Super Final will be a continuation of the program "chess in the museums", started by the match for the world title in 2012 at the Retyakov Gallery in Moscow on the initiative of businessmen Andrei Filatov and Gennady Timchenko. The venue for the prestigious tournament in Nizhny Novgorod will be the State Historical and Architectural Museum Manor Rukavishnikov. The Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum will also take part in the organization of the tournament. The tournament is a ound robin with ten players over nine rounds. Sofia-Rules. If first place is shared than the champion will be decided through a tiebreaker match. Time Control: 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 30 seconds/move starting with the 1st move.

Free Day

The players took time off to explore the city and, since the tournament is being held at a museum, it was only natural to organize a private tour of this culturally important manor.

After the rest day the players must have come back inspired. Today's round was absolutely brutal.

Svidler keeps his lead with a 2951 performance!

Svidler, Peter 1-0 Motylev, Alexander
Svidler chose a very close formation to battle Motylev's Moscow Semi-Slav. The advance c5 is done to prevent Black's own break on that square, but it runs the risk of giving up the a-file to his opponent as happened in the game. Motylev's control of that file gave him counterchances, he was after all positionally worse because of his entombed bishop on g7. However, slowly, very slowly, Svidler out-maneuvered his opponent and once two major pieces came off it was clear that Black's weakness on c6 was going to be impossible to defend. Svidler won the pawn and proceeded to promote the past c-pawn to move into an amazing 5.0/6

Nepomniachtchi, Ian 1-0 Vitiugov, Nikita
Nepo's unusual move order against Vitiugov's Paulsen Sicilian gave both players interesting chances. Neither attack was crashing through out of the opening, but Black's pieces were a little awkward while White's pawn structure could be easily compromised, not to mention his bishops were not the most useful. Vitiugov's key mistakes came with 20...Bc5?! and 21...b4? He must overestimated his chances on the queenside, but White proved that his own attack was much quicker. With both players in a little bit of time pressure, Nepo relinquished his advantage by allowing Black's rook to powerfully penetrate to f3 and set up sacrificial possibilities. However Vitiugov didn't take advantage of this - the only way to do it was with the unnatural 31...Qf2! 32. Ng3 Rxd3! which is very hard to see. After this final error Nepo set up a brutal attack against Black's very exposed king.

Shomoev, Anton 0-1 Karjakin, Sergey
The only Black victory of the day came in a Nimzo-Indian. Both sides had weak bishops but Black had a powerful knight on e4 and White had chances at a kingside initiative. However White's 20.g4?! was too optimistic, and it was Black that proved that he also had chances on that side of the board. Karjakin used the h-file to full effect, swinging the rook from a8 all the way to c3 via h3, winning pawn after pawn in the process which ultimately culminated in a winning endgame.

Andreikin, once known for his boring results full of draws, is now four wins and two losses with no draws in this tournament

Andreikin, Dmitri 1-0 Goganov, Aleksey
Andreikin has lately been using this quick outing of his dark squared bishop to g5 in the queen pawn openings with some decent results. He was able to obtain an advantage against Svidler in the World Cup and that's not easily done. This game was quickly very strange: Black had the pair of bishops and arguably a better pawn structure, but his king found himself on e7, where it was temporarily safe because White did lack development. Both sides had chances, definitely, but Goganov completely overestimated his position. He should never have allowed Andreikin to play f5 so easily; he probably missed that after 25... e5 the powerful 26.Ne6! came crashing through and his position fell to pieces.

Inarkiev felt the full wrath of an inspired Kramnik

Kramnik, Vladimir 1-0 Inarkiev, Ernesto
Not only did Kramnik use 1. e4, he used one of the strangest variations against the Sicilian imaginable. The 2. b3 line is not supposed to give White anything, but Kramnik simply wanted to outplay his opponent. And this is precisely what he did! The game featured a queenless middlegame in which Kramnik slowly but surely accrued positional advantages. His slight development edge turned into a a better pawn structure after he traded his bishop on b2 for his opponent's knight on d4. Inarkiev's position suffered after he took on h2, the trapped knight cost him an exchange (the alternative to losing the exchange was losing a pawn and having a horrible pawn structure, so he went for the more practical chance). However Kramnik's technique was brilliant, and he simply won the endgame.

[Event "66th ch-RUS 2013"] [Site "Nizhny Novgorod RUS"] [Date "2013.10.11"] [Round "6.2"] [White "Kramnik, Vladimir"] [Black "Inarkiev, Ernesto"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B20"] [WhiteElo "2796"] [BlackElo "2695"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "103"] [EventDate "2013.10.05"] 1. e4 c5 2. b3 Nc6 3. Bb2 {Hardly a popular way of playing, but it has been seen at the top level from time to time. Kramnik himself used it against Kobalia just two months ago in the World Cup!} d5 {Relatively unheard of, pretty much any other logical move is more common.} 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qe5+ 6. Qe2 Qxe2+ 7. Ngxe2 Bf5 8. O-O-O O-O-O 9. g3 e5 10. f4 {White enjoys a certain developent lead. After all he has more pieces out, so it is natural to try to open up the position. Black can't really afford to weaken his pawn by putting it on e4, so he trades it off.} exf4 11. Nxf4 Nf6 12. Bc4 {Black's weakness on f7 is exposed, but besides this his position will remain solid, so Inarkiev just has to watch out for f7 for the time being.} Nd4 $1 13. d3 (13. Bxf7 Bxc2 {is in no way a favorable trade for White.}) 13... Bd6 $1 {Inarkiev plays accurately to keep the balance.} 14. Rdf1 (14. Bxf7 Bxf4+ 15. gxf4 b5 $1 {And surprisingly White's bishop on f7 starts to have some serious issues as it has no retreat squares.}) 14... Bd7 15. Nce2 Bxf4+ 16. Nxf4 Bc6 17. Rhg1 Rd7 18. Bxd4 $1 {A brilliant strategical decision, taking advantage of the fact that the rook on d7 cannot recapture on d4 as it is stuck defending f7.} cxd4 { White's structure is superior, which allows him to put pressure on his opponent's pawns slowly.} 19. b4 b5 20. Bb3 Ng4 21. Nh5 Nxh2 $2 {Too optimistic.} (21... Ne3 22. Rxf7 Rxf7 23. Bxf7 Rf8 24. Be6+ Kc7 {Was still very unclear, despite the fact that White is temporarily up two pawns.} 25. Nxg7 Rf2 26. Bb3 Kd6 $1 27. h4 Ke5 $1 {And although it is only White that can win this endgame, it is unclear how exactly he will do this: Black's pieces are completely dominating their counterparts and for the time being it is impossible to advance the pawns safely. White's knight on g7 is clearly stuck out of play and the rook on g1 is not much better.}) 22. Rf2 $1 {Inarkiev must have missed this powerful maneuver.} Ng4 23. Rf4 $1 f5 {Desperation, really. Black has no hope of surviving being down an exchange.} (23... Ne5 24. Nxg7 $16 {Winning g7 is much more important than winning f7 as now the knight will return to f5 and pressure d4, not to mention that f7 remains a weakness.}) 24. Be6 g6 25. Ng7 {It seems as if White's knight on g7 will be stranded and possibly even captured in the near future, but Kramnik is not bothered with such trivialities as 'it seems' or 'it might be'. He has calculated that the knight makes it back safely without issues.} Ne5 (25... Kc7 26. Bxd7 Bxd7 27. Re1 {And the knight on g7 has kept the important job of keeping the enemy rook out of the e-file, which allows White this Re1 move followed by Ne6, saving the knight.}) 26. Re1 Nf3 27. Re2 Rhd8 28. Bxd7+ Rxd7 29. Ne6 Rd6 30. Nf8 $1 { No reason for this guy to retreat, there is work still to be done!} h5 31. Re6 Rxe6 32. Nxe6 Bd7 33. Nf8 Ng1 34. Kd1 Be8 35. Rxd4 Nf3 36. Rd6 g5 37. Ne6 Bd7 38. Nc5 Be8 39. Re6 Kd8 40. Nb7+ Kd7 41. Re3 {Black is just down too much material.} g4 42. Nc5+ Kd8 43. Ne6+ Kd7 44. Nf4 Bf7 45. d4 h4 46. Rxf3 $1 { Kramnik chooses the easiest way to win. With two passed pawns supported by the powerful knight on f4 the game is easily won.} gxf3 47. gxh4 Bxa2 48. Ke1 Ke7 49. d5 Kd6 50. h5 Ke5 51. h6 $1 Kxf4 52. Kf2 {A pretty position. The bishop is powerless against the advance of the pawns. A clean victory by Kramnik who continues his chase and is half a point behind Svidler.} 1-0

Kramnik was totally cool about having his knight seemingly trapped on g7

Joshua Friedel

Josh was born in 1986 in New Hampshire, USA and is currently living in Wisconsin. He obtained his international master title in 2005 and his grandmaster in 2008. He has participated in five US Championships, including a tie for fourth in 2008. Major Open tournament victories include: the 2003 Eastern Open, 2005 Berkeley Masters, 2008 National Open, 2009 Edmonton International, 2009 North American Open, 2010 Saint Louis Open, 2010 American Open, 2013 Chicago Open.

Josh is the current US Open Champion and is the first person qualified for the 2014 US Chess Championship.

Round 6: Women's

Round 06 – October 11 2013, 15:00h

Kosintseva,T

2515

½-½

Goryachkina, A

2436

Kashlinskaya, A

2435

0-1

Kosteniuk,A

2495

Charochkina,D

2343

0-1

Kovalevskaya,E

2410

Bodnaruk, A

2459

0-1

Pogonina,N

2485

Gunina,V

2506

1-0

Kovanova, B

2396

Kashlinskaya, Alina 0-1 Kosteniuk, Alxandra
Kashlinskaya repeated a bizarre variation that Granda Zuniga tried in the World Cup, but the Peruvian talent is hardly anyone's to-go person for opening repertoire knowledge. Indeed if anyone was better out of the opening it was Kosteniuk, and she kept pressing forward using her isolated pawn as a jumping point for her pieces. Black's knights swarmed the enemy position and her king was clearly too weak. Kosteniuk simply proceeded to mercilessly destroy her opponent's position.

Kosteniuk is now tied with second, with Kovanova, and trailing Gunina by only a point

Bodnaruk, Anastasia 0-1 Pogonina, Natalia
Black sacrificed a pawn early in the opening to obtain the pair of bishops and a slight initiative. White kept hanging on to her material, to the point that she accepted Pogonina's second pawn sacrifice. White was up two pawns, but her structure was completely shattered. Pogonina kept putting pressure on them until eventually they started falling like flies. With the material balance restored Black's activity and superior remaining pawn chains gave her an easily decisive advantage. A very pretty game.

Checking out the opposition is normal procedure before and during rounds

Kovanova lost her lead, but she still has reasons to smile: she is winning an awesome 14 rating points and having a really good tournament

Gunina, Valentina 1-0 Kovanova, BairaDefinitely the most important game of the day as far as standings are concerned. With this victory Gunina puts a full point between herself and the second place of the tournament. The game was a tense Ragozin-style of position, but White came out ahead of some exchanges in the center as her more active major pieces and safer king promised her a long term advantage. In time pressure Black missed a simple tactic and the game quickly came to an end.

Gunina smashed her opponent and takes a full point lead. She still has to play Kosteniuk who is in second place.

Charochkina, Daria 0-1 Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina
In yet another game in which one side sacrificed a pawn, Black gave away her b-pawn to open files against White's king in this Rauzer Sicilian. However in this case the compensation was very unclear and it's possible that with correct play White could have consolidated her extra pawn. However instead of this she countersacrificed on the kingside to also open some files for unclear compensation. The resulting opposite colored bishop endgame should certainly be drawn, but White's strange rook maneuvers and her lack of prevention of Black's pawn advancements simply gave the game away.

WGM Alina Kashlinskaya

Kosintseva, Tatiana ½-½ Goryachkina, Aleksandra
Kosintseva tried a Rossolimo approach against the Sicilian. This typical structure grants White control over the d5 square but little else. Kosintseva was simply unable to make much of anything from the position and Goryachkina held equality throughout the game.

Goryachkina is at -1 with five draws and a loss and performing at about her rating

Tatev Abrahamyan

Born in 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia, the Women's Grandmaster now lives in Glendale, California and is one of the strongest players in the American women's olympic team.

After graduating in 2011 from California State University, Long Beach with a double major in psychology and political science, Tatev focused on becoming a full time chess professional. She recently scored her second IM norm and is already qualified for the next Women's World Championship

See also

6/28/2017 – It was a remarkable finish to a remarkable event. Entering the final round of the FIDE World Team Championship, gold seemed a lock for the Chinese since the only way Russia could beat them was if they not only drew Poland, but Russia beat the US by 3.5-0.5. However, the Russians did even better as they swept the US 4-0. China, in danger of faltering, was saved by Li Chao who scored a powerful and crucial win. In the Women’s Russia beat Ukraine and took gold. Final report with GM analysis.

See also

6/26/2017 – The final rounds are ending and the gold medals in both Open and Women’s sections seem all but decided, though mathematically things can happen. In the Women’s event, Russia is all but certain of gold after their co-leader rivals, Ukraine, lost to Georgia. In the Open section, China has all but wrapped up the gold, while Russia beat India after a scare when Vidit Gujarathi missed a study-like win against Peter Svidler. Report with analysis by GM Alex Lenderman.

Video

The setup for White recommended by Valeri Lilov is solid and easy to play – the thematic moves are almost always the same ones: Nge2, 0-0, Bg5 (or Be3), Nd5, Qd2. Later, according to Black’s setup, things continue with f4 or even Rac1, b4 and play on the queenside. Starting with the classic Botvinnik-Spassky, Leiden 1970, the author describes this universally employable setup in 7 videos (+ intro and conclusion).

"Simple yet aggressive!" Enjoy this new exciting DVD by Simon Williams. Let the famouns Grandmaster from England show you how to gain a very exciting yet well founded opening game with the London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4).